Sonic Boom was destined to fail, with a series of notable problems, less then satisfactory gameplay and a wide variety of unpleasant issues. Sega has now revealed that between the Wii U and 3DS version of the game they have managed to sell a dismal 490,000 copies of the game worldwide. At the current point in time Sega has not elaborated as to whether this number is shipped or sold-in to consumers. This sales number actually makes Sonic Boom the worst selling Sonic game thus far.
Today’s information about Sonic Boom’s performance comes from SEGA’s latest financial report. Other interesting tidbits are as follows:
– SEGA spent $210 million on games development
– That is a 27 percent increase compared to the year prior
– Advertising expenses climbed 53 percent, up to $73 million
– SEGA is releasing 50 games by the end of the financial year in March, but combined sales of all those are expected to be about 5.4 million units
– SEGA initially expected to sell about 300,000 units of its four latest Wii U games
– That is now revised to 230,000, making it the weakest platform in terms of unit sales
– Full year expectations for 3DS 1,160,000
– SEGA’s revenue for the three-quarter period was $685 million
– After expenses, that lowers to a profit of $18 million
– SEGA is now organizing a sweeping business restructure, which will rebuild the corporation into three divisions, as part of a wider plan to “drastically improve profitability”
– At least 300 positions at the corporation are targeted for redundancy
– SEGA has set aside $125 million for the restructure costs
– SEGA expects to lose $110m for the full year
It is sad, I actually like the Sonic games but even still I have to really turn and question whether Sega should continue with Sonic or whether it is time to wrap the noose around the speedy hedgehog and finally put him out of his misery.
